Cobourg Council Gets It Right

For many of us it's second nature to find fault, and if the subject of our concern is politics, that tendency can run amok. Combine that with a moribund town council like we have in Cobourg, and to the casual observer it looks like constant complaining. Call it negativity, call it whining, some of us are very hard to please.

With Council appearing to be in no hurry to add their voice to the chorus of citizens opposed to hospital cuts, many of us expected them to find a way to wiggle out of supporting their, and our investment in the brand new hospital.

Imagine the surprise, when the item finally came up at Council last week, that Councillors had not one word to say in debate of the detailed motion presented by deputy mayor Gil Brocanier, and simply and unanimously supported it. Just like that!

To Town Council I say well done. While it was always a no-brainer for so many of us, it was a pleasant shock to see that even our elected representatives knew it too. Thank you Council, both for your wise decision and for teaching this old grouch that even minor league politicians can do something right occasionally.

Only one nugget this week

A perusal of the Council agenda for monday evening only reveals one, possibly contentious, item. That is tucked away in the approval to award the contract for the rebuilding of D'Arcy St. Local guy Tom Behan got the job by being the cheapest but his price was $319,839.62 over estimate. Negotiations with the Company managed to get the over-run down to $200K and that's the amount that the Town has to find from someplace. They did and the folks on Westwood Drive that were expecting another sidewalk this year will be disappointed, that money has gone to D'Arcy St. The problem now is that the low hanging fruit of tranferable projects has been drawn down. Where will the money for the next inevitable over-run come from?

At least Lou showed up

To face his critics and to defend his tenuous position. As the protest, organised by the Northumberland Health Coalition, paraded in front of MPP Lou Rinaldi's office in Cobourg with signs calling upon him to stand up to the local hospital, started guess who appeared from his office? Lou Rinaldi that's who. In an unusual move the MPP who has a habit of not being in his office when demonstrators turn up, decided to emerge and adress his critics. After giving us all the usual guff about health care costs and how they have to be contained he then told the crowd that he's working on a solution but the Board is resistant to the idea of putting money into reinstating the cut services in the Diabetes Clinic and Outpatient Rehab. "I am committed to finding a solution." So there you have it folks, Lou says that more money may be available but the Board has set priorities. It seems that since Mr Biron hung Lou out to dry last week by saying that the problem is a political one - talk to your MPP, the MPP is saying that the money is there but the Board and Mr Biron is being uncooperative. And meanwhile nobody is getting Rehab services.

As Lou left the crowd the mike was given to Michael Herley, the CUPE Director for Health Care Unions. He proceeded to tell the crowd that other Liberal MPPs had squeezed money for their hospitals and condemned Lou for not doing the same. "He must be as active as other MPPs!" meanwhile the BurdReport has heard of a conversation between local "liberal with his ear to the ground" John Wright and Lou, a couple of F-bombs didn't manage to convince Lou that he's in electoral trouble. But as we know he is!

Well looky here

In a story in the G&M here, this morning it has been exposed that the Ontario Hospital Association has been preparing bylaws, on behalf of the member hospitals, all 155 of them. The rewording of the bylaws has upset the Doctors. So we thought the move to new bylaws was just a Northumberland thing, but it is not. It is now even more important that the membership of the Hospital Association get to know just what is in the proposed changes apart from moves to reduce membership and attempts to muzzle Doctors.

On another front, a series of emails between a local member and the CAO has revealed two important facts: one is that if a member wants to have a motion presented to the AGM on June 22nd the motion must be submitted to the Secretary of the Board by Friday May 17th, two working days time, and the second is that in response to a request for the membership list the Board will be making a decision whether to release the list at its Board meeting on May 27th.

The fact that the Board is making it a Board decision to release the membership list is a strange one. Surely under the Corporations Act all shareholders (members) are entitled to ask for, and receive, a list of shareholders (members). Perhaps any of the lawyers reading this post could advise the BurdReport on this.

Bad news and good news

First the good news - there will be a coalition government in the UK. The bad news - it will be chaired by the Cons and held up by the power-hungry dreamers.
Now the bad news: when the Lib-Dems went into the election campaign the one principle it upheld for all was the vision of a change in the electoral system. They fully supported proportional representation (PR). In order that two toffee nosed public schoolboys can cling to power this principle has been severely watered down to , as we hear correct me if I'm wrong, to the Alternative Voting system. But the good old school tie linkage has prevailed to the detriment of the worker. Now wait for the other shoe to drop - the service cuts to lower income families and the tax breaks to the rich.

The lessons to be learnt here is that firstly the idea of a coalition government (do you hear that Libs and NewDems) is politically acceptable. That must have Harper shaking in his boots just to think about the legitimacy of that. The other is that politics really does make strange bedfellows - the image at the top says it all.

Ottawa will be watching this

The UK had an election last night (stand up all those who didn't know that!) and the initial results are very interesting and have implications for us here in Canada.
First off they now have a Minority Parliament - a "Hung Parliament" as they say. The first since 1974. That one ended in failure so the Brits don't have much luck with the minority style of governing. That's what makes this time so innovative. Labour, who was the Government is the second place party and the Conservatives, who were expected to win didn't do as well as they thought they would and failed to achieve a majority. Now the fun begins. The third party the Lib-Dems failed miserably to achieve the breakthrough that was expected.
The first implication for us is that the signs point to a real coalition between the Labour Party and the disappointed Liberal Democrats. These folks had seized the imagination of the press in the campaign and were projected to perform miracles but were brought down to earth by the voters who didn't seem so impressed.
The dealmaker for the coalition will be just how far the Labour Party goes with power-sharing and a willingness to bring in Proportional Representation (PR). These two demands will be the key to Labour staying in power with Lib-Dem support. We will have to watch just how well a coalition Government will work because if it does you can bet on some form of similar arangement here between the real Libs (not the blue Martin types who should belong with Harper) and the NDP.
Harper will be watching carefully as some UK Conservative moves echo his moves as the UK Cons threaten to bypass the unwritten constitution and tell the Queen to install them as they received the most seats. Shades of "Who runs the Country"

They're off

In this story Peter Delanty killed all speculation amongst the chattering classes. Mayor Delanty has joined his Dad in the history books of Cobourg, he will not be on the ballot this Fall. It's about time for a change, and change will come as there will be four vacancies on Council, and besides a sitting Mayor would have a tough time getting his name on the as yet unnamed Recreation Complex.
The dominoes that will fall will be as follows: Gil Brocanier, who has engaged the services of local "rainmaker" - John Wright, will be campaigning from now until the election. A reasonable time will elapse before Stan Frost declares for Deputy Mayor and Councillor Mutton will try to cement her position as "the most popular" by becoming the highest vote getter. Names being bandied around for Councillor, other than the two declared candidates (Forest Rowden and John Henderson) will be Larry Sherwin, Wayne DeVeau, Melissa Marshal, perhaps Bridget Campion and about six more.
Let the contest begin!

No, YOU shut the f**k up!

What a crazy political zoo we live in, when a sympathetic feminist Conservative senator urges aid groups to stop making waves or risk retribution from the Prime Minister and his band of thugs. Countless words have been written about this strange outburst, and what it really means.

Opposition parties have seized on it as proof of the "culture of intimidation" that Harper has established, and I must admit it stands as a shining example. Whether the Senator was trying to be helpful to the aid groups is secondary to the fact that she has unwittingly revealed the extent of the icy chill imposed by the PM.

There was even an element of humor, at least for me, when John Baird reared up on his paunchy hind legs to decry the Senator's unparliamentary behaviour, forgetting for the moment that he's the guy who famously told the entire city of Toronto to f**k off a few short months ago.

There is a war going on, here and in the USA, between those who want to just live and let live, and those who want everyone else to march to their tune. Aided and abetted by the media, who fan every flame of controversy into a flaming inferno, our politicians have gone truly bonkers trying to keep up, and we are not far behind.

A throwaway society

OK I did something bad today - I threw out my old electronics and contributed to the mounting pile of e-waste.
But is that really bad? Arrived at the depot on Veronica St. five minutes after opening time and joined the lineup - 25 cars in front of me. All is going well until a van, driven by an older woman (approx 70yrs) who jammed a "Handicapped" sticker on the dash and proceeded to jump the line. This was possible as the first line came from the East, off Division. A staff member came around at that time to take license plate #s. I said to her "You need signs here, people are jumping the line (this was possible if one came at the gate from the West)." I was told that "You have to come from that side anyway!" I retorted, "Put some signs up then" Anyway cars were then directed from the line behind me and told to assume the position on the West side. Inside the gate and at the receiving station all was organised and I had only waited 40 minutes. A very tidy operation. Goodness knows how long the lineups will be at the busy time.

But the bottom line for me was that I had to dispose of functioning but obsolete equipment to declutter. If I had taken it all to the "Blue Box" nobody would have taken it either, because of its age. A very graphic example of waste. It is hoped that efficient recycling now takes over.

A couple of notices from readers

1. From Dan Christie
"I first caught Martin Joseph last July at the Vancouver Island Music Fest. I was most impressed. He's going to be at St. Peter's in Cobourg on Thursday at 7:30. I will be there for sure. He's a helluva singer and a godamned good songwriter too. Maybe other Burders might be interested."

2. From Peggy Smith:
There is Northumberland health Coalition meeting this Thurs. May 6th 6:30 pm at the Orange Hall in Cobourg, information and updates, corner of University and Ontario st. Cobourg.